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Google Offers Hybrid Satellite and Map View
That's Unpossible! writes "Google Maps now offers a hybrid view which combines their map view with their satellite view. The Google blog has a notice on the update. It appears to use 8-bit alpha transparent PNGs to make it work."
Quite the contrary, I could see using the hybrid in preference to just the map. If you print it out for someone, I find it more useful than just the raw map...
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From a programming standpoint, this is amazing.
The fact you can zoom in, to the highest zoom level, anywhere in the US... and the roads line up with the satellite maps.. is amazing.
I just zoomed in fully to my street on Long Island, NY, and the road names and highways were overlayed perfectly with the actual streets as depicted on the satellite map.
How do they do this? I guess the satellite maps are labelled so precisely that they can overlay lat/lon routes on top of them?
But, since Google provides all these neeto features to me and so many others free of charge, who am I to complain?
Wake up.
Still NO EXIT NUMBERS!
I can't believe I still use Mapquest's tiny and slow interface just to find freeway exit numbers.
Morphing Software
Beta is no longer a technical term for them, it is a marketing term. It is for most people.
and about the address parsing: it isn't sure it can accurately guess what you want, so it prompts you. would you rather it guess incorrectly or prompt? I'll pick prompt, thanks.
nothing has to be said.
Google isn't a company... Google is an Empire.
They will create services which will survive for YEARS! Slow ad revenue is just a stumbling block towards total domination.
If they can just keep generating 5c a click for 50 years they'll generate billions!
Plus they have froogle which promises to be the biggest cash cow the internet has ever seen.
so how's this going to be different to you? imagine google did remove the beta word from their google maps software. would you know the difference? would it matter if it was exactly the same product that it was during beta form?
in my opinion, beta is just a term google likes to fool the public with. if something is truly beta, you have 'beta' testers which usually are a select group to test out the product before releasing to the general public. this is usually a process to find bugs and etc. google has made the ENTIRE WORLD their beta testers, which i don't really mind, but final question that i want to ask you is how is sticking the word 'beta' or removing it from their products going to be any difference to you.
i can see why you'd complain if it wasn't release to the general public, while beta users reaped all the usefulness. sorta like how people felt when only a select few got 1gb gmail accounts. gmail was in beta, and people were fighting to get accounts paying over $50 for 1 account. i could see why you'd want to see gmail go outta beta just for that reason. but google maps doesn't require subscription fees, no one has exclusive access, and it works beautifully.
in fact, as someone else mention, google beta products are AD free!
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